Mental Health and Welfare Centers (MHWCs) play a key role in supporting the recovery of people suffering from various addictions. These centers usually cooperate with local peer support groups and other resources in the community, such as Drug Addiction Rehabilitation Center (DARC). The goal of the present research is to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on these regional support systems, and its impact on persons who are suffering from addiction. One-on-one counseling programs, group cognitive-behavioral therapy programs, and family groups programs provided at MHWCs were fully canceled or being reduced capacity. One-on-one counseling programs were maintained compared to the other two programs, as many centers opted to keep providing personal sessions as an alternative to group sessions. Activities provided by local self-help groups and other peer support programs were also highly affected as many groups were unable to hold meetings due to governmental restrictions on social gatherings. The situation did not significantly improve even after the lockdown, as the number of participants attending these groups remained low due to fear of infection. Cooperation between MHWCs and local peer supporters was also restricted due to the pandemic. MHWCs generally observed a deterioration in the symptoms of their clients, such as relapse of their addictive behaviors or even suicide in the worst case. There were also a small number of reports saying that some individuals showed signs of improvement, especially clients with Gambling Disorder. The results indicate that treatment programs for addiction are generally vulnerable to infections such as COVID-19. Each regional support system must recognize its role in the community and communicate with other programs to prevent the treatment program provision system of each region from being imbalanced, thereby minimizing the negative effect on the community as a whole. Also in daily practice, clinicians must keep in mind that the influence of the COVID-19 is unique to each client and personal assessment is needed to evaluate and minimize its negative impact. Especially when meeting clients whose engagement in treatment resources is being restricted, clinicians must communicate to investigate if this is occurring from changes in the treatment resource or the client's living condition and provide support to gain access to the optimal treatment resource.
 Authors' abstract